Fairy Tail
by Gaesthetics
Summary: "Can't you remember at least one thing about him?... Or are you just pretending to not know him to avoid the fact that you something happened between you and him?" "You know of this story, it's something you've read so many times…"
1. Chapter 1

_"There once was a prince who despised his palace, he would roam the village town and mingle with the people of his country. His appearance didn't help him since his family were known for their bright coloured eyes, therefore he was immediately exposed. Yet, as expected all were kind and welcomed the prince with open arms; they treated him as they would to any other person that lived or visited their town – even though they knew if they did something to anger the prince they would face severe consequences, yet they still accepted him. Despite being friendly to the children in the village, who were the same age as he, the prince refused to talk about his appearance and his life in the palace._

 _However, it was on that one day where the prince stumbled across an old school, it was decrepit and in tatters, but the children who played were happy – especially the eldest looking girl with chocolate brunette hair. It was her smile. It was as if she were a magnet; attracted by her smile, it drew him towards her. His feet took several steps forward unconsciously, eyes still on the girl the prince glided to her and introduced himself to her._

 _For weeks on end the prince would meet up with the girl as she was good company and was an incredibly good listener. She was different, special even. The girl had a disorder, she was unable to speak. She would always respond by nodding, hand gestures or through paper; when the prince was not allowed to leave the palace, he would communicate with her through letters, which brought them closer as he could understand the struggle of expressing himself through words on paper, like that of the poor girl._

 _Soon it was time for his coronation, but for the prince it was all too much for him. Wanting to be with the girl he suggested that they stay together forever and elope to which the girl promised with a smile that she would always be with him even if they couldn't elope – which they didn't due to the girl persuading the prince to stay and go through with it. The prince agreed as he knew that the girl would stick to her word, so he kept that promise._

 _On the day of the coronation the prince searched for the girl in the crowd, but couldn't find her. He assumed that she had left early, so decided to search for her the following day. Nothing. Not a trace of her, no one knew where she had disappeared to. The prince, heart-broken, kept to himself for weeks. When he had cleared his mind, he realised that he was bound to the girl, as although she had broken the promise – he couldn't forget her and swore to find her..."_

"Wha' happen' next?" a small voice questioned.

"Di' he fin' her in da end!?" demanded another voice.

"That will be revealed next time…" the narrator replied in a voice as smooth as silk.

"Awwh! Mi-chan! C'mon you have ta!" the two younger voices replied in unison, the eldest referred to as _'Mi-chan'_ simply chuckled at their eagerness. They were only 2 years younger, but 2 years still seemed like quite a lot.

The neighbourhood babysitter, Mikan Azumi-Sakura, 12 years old.

"Time for bed!" Mikan hollered as she checked the clock to find that it was '9:00pm', the two boys Kitsuneme and Kokoroyomi refused and ran around their bedroom. Kitsuneme climbed up onto the desk – he had a habit for climbing up to higher ground, meanwhile Kokoroyomi had hidden in his favourite place – under the bed. Mikan, shutting her eyes, clicked her tongue and spoke aloud "Aw… Boys are so immature, I guess they really don't want me to come back next time to finish off the story." She heard two sharp gasps followed by thumping of feet on the floor. Mikan, grinned to herself, before opening her eyes to see that the two were in their designated beds.

Tucking the two in, she briefly kissed both boys on the forehead and bid them a goodnight, "G'night Koko, Kitsu – I'll be back, don't worry!" The boys flashed a mischievous grin then shut their eyes. Mikan sighed, as she shut the door she greeted the twins' parents and kindly refused the money they had offered and instead accepted a token of their appreciation, a box of cakes they had bought for her, her mother and her grandfather.

The girl lived with her mother and grandfather, she never ceased to keep a positive outlook; it was one of her traits that attracted the adults to trust her and accept her as a babysitter. She looked like her mother, but her personality and smarts were from her father.

The following day Mikan was called out by another parent, her best friend offered to accompany her as it was a new face to the neighbourhood. Hotaru was the opposite of Mikan, she was a sharped-tongue realist and told Mikan to accept the money that she _would_ be earning is she wasn't a 'soft-hearted idiot'. As they arrived at the doorstep of the new _client_ , in Hotaru's terms, Mikan gave a weak smile to her best friend and offered that she would do the speaking as Hotaru would end up ruining this opportunity. Reluctantly she approved and simply stared at the air-headed geezer.

Apologising for Hotaru's behalf, the brunette arranged the ' _appointment'_ and left. _Hyuuga-san_ was quite peculiar, he seemed very timid, but with the description of his child it sounded like it'd be a tough job. However, for Mikan a challenge was always fun, the boy was 2 years younger than her, so she expected him to be like the twins she had looked after the previous night.

 _On the night…_

Natsume was a rather tall 10-year-old, for his age that is, he just barely reached up to Mikan's nose; he had raven hair just like his father and strange crimson orbs. The boy was well behaved, the opposite of whatever Hyuuga-san had described him to be. Mikan asked whether he wanted to be friends with her, but was shot down with 'I don't like snot-nosed girls'.

The kid was arrogant and his tone was harsh like someone she was close to. The night went by slowly and the 12-year-old hadn't made any progress with their relationship, she felt that the reason why the younger boy was acting like that was due to him being cautious around new people like herself. Offering the younger a cookie she had brought especially for that night, he shook his head and continued to watch his programme.

As they were watching his cartoons, Mikan kept trying to start up a conversation, but each time he would reply with something witty like 'oh… really? How fascinating' acting as if he cared when really it was obvious he was being sarcastic. The boy didn't act the way a 10-year-old would, he was independent and refused to rely on Mikan.

Although despite all of this, Mikan was determined to get closer to the kid, but didn't want to seem too desperate in becoming friends with him. The boy was already more mature than she was and she didn't want to act childish as he would surely use that against her.

The night came to a close when Natsume's dad arrived and Natsume heading to bed, he didn't want Mikan to enter his room as 'no snot-nosed girls' were allowed. With Mikan being thanked by his dad and apologising for his son's attitude he again asked her to look after Natsume tomorrow night and for the following week to which the young girl happily agreed. Giddy, for tomorrow she set off home to prepare a plan in getting Natsume to warm up to her.

 _The following day…_

Clapping her hands the brunette had gathered her mother, her best friend and her grandfather to help her create the master plan to get Natsume to open up. Her mother insisted that she just be herself and that Natsume would gradually learn to relax around her; Hotaru refused to give any input aside from blackmailing the younger and her grandfather gave her a small smile, encouraging her by saying that she should learn to find a solution by herself to get through life.

Seeing as those whom she could rely on wouldn't agree in giving her advice or suggestions, she turned to the next best thing; other 10-year-olds. Koko and Kitsu, the twins, although they didn't really help the first time as she assumed that Natsume would be similar to them… Then again it was her fault for thinking all 10-year-olds were odd balls like the twins, maybe she grew accustomed to their silliness and found it normal.

She spotted the twins in their usual place, at the park, the climbing frames. Kitsu was hanging upside down and Koko was sitting on the bar, sprinting to them she called for them and asked for their opinions. They gave her some useful and some stupid facts about 10-year-old boys. The main ones Mikan remembered were that they enjoy praise and like challenges.

 _That night…_

Mikan brought a backpack full of gameboards, trivia games and other puzzle games of the sort. She wore her lucky shirt and favourite skirt hoping that tonight would go as planned. It was all going well when they played jenga, but when Mikan toppled the tower over she couldn't help but whine at how nerve-racking it was to be under pressure, which miraculously caused the stone-faced boy to stifle a chuckle.

Blinking once, twice, thrice, Mikan took a double take and gasped, "You just laughed!" she pointed and beamed her 100-watt smile. The raven-haired male scoffed and shook his head, he offered to play another puzzle game challenging the brunette to a match of chess. Mikan was hesitant as Natsume looked quite confident in his skill, the 12-year-old only played a few times with her grandfather. Agreeing to his challenge the two set up the board and began the match.

Loss. Every game, and rematch Mikan played with Natsume would lead her to a loss. Annoyed at this, the older sulked at how he refused to go easy on her as she was a beginner, however this allowed Mikan to witness the boy laugh, smile and communicate to her. She had done it.

"Hey ugly… Ugly!" the male called out to gain the brunettes attention.

"…" not wanting to respond to the mean names he was giving her she ignored his attempts.

"Ugly! Hey answer me! Ugl-… Polka dots." Her ears pricekd at the new name he had given her.

"Polka-what?" Mikan finally answered, clueless about how Natsume came up with that name.

"Polka dots. You shouldn't keep your legs wide open and wear a skirt" Mikan's eyes grew to the size of her gaping mouth in sudden realization.

"Y-you… YOU PERVERT!" grabbing the closest object to her person, a cushion, she threw it at the other which lead to the other throwing it back, resulting in a full out brawl between the two. Mikan began chasing the younger around the room, the table and the couch. When she had him in a tight spot, she pounced onto him and pinned him down using all her body weight. Luckily, she weighed more than him, for now, pouting she flicked his forehead and scolded him "No girl will like you if you're a pervert!"

This declaration was followed by a moment of silence, until Natsume began to turn red – the boy was blushing. Mikan gasped and thought that she was preventing him from breathing and quickly rolled off the younger. Natsume avoided eye contact with Mikan for the rest of the night, which didn't go unnoticed by the brunette.

At around 10pm Natume's dad returned, Mikan had to hurry on home before her mom began to worry; surprisingly, Natsume decided to see her out with his dad and waved goodbye as she left "See you later…" he muttered softly, Mikan giggled retorting with "Don't you mean tomorrow?" She couldn't wait to tell her mom, her grandfather and Hotaru what she had accomplished.


	2. Chapter 2

"S-so he called you af-after the pattern of your… underwear?" Mikan had pursed lips, fuming at how the three people she told had not acknowledged the fact that she achieved her goal and merely focused on the funny, now-nickname the said boy gave to her. They were all currently having dinner: roast chicken and stir fry.

"Mikan. I think you should follow his advice, you can learn a lot from that 10-year-old." Her own stoic friend shook her head in disappointment, then inserted a slice of chicken into her mouth.

"Mou… You guys don't even care that I got Hyuuga-san's son to open up, do you?" folding her arms, she gave a great huff and turned her head away.

"Mikan-chan, I think that you don't need us to recognise that you did it because from the start we knew you could do it." Her grandfather revealed, Mikan couldn't act angry towards her 'jii-chan' simply because he was so wise and knew how to make her happy with only a few words. The four then continued with their meal, laughing at Mikan's silliness.

It was a mundane thing for Hotaru to stop by; stay to have dinner with Mikan's family and discuss about her babysitting work. It was also normal for her to sleepover if ever she felt too lazy to go home, despite it being directly beside the Azumi-Sakura house; it was basically a second house to her… She even had a place for her clothes and a spare bed for herself, but she usually shared Mikan's king sized bed as the latter would whine and beg if she refused.

Hotaru's family, the Imai's, were close and fond of the Azumi-Sakura's. Especially the young Mikan, who was best friend with their dear Hotaru. They considered her as one of their own, even Subaru Hotaru's older brother was comfortable when Mikan stayed over or came for dinner. Similar to the Hyuuga's, the Imai's had raven hair with a unique eye colour - violet

 _11:00 am_ | _Friday_

"Hey… Hotaru" Mikan began, hoping her best friend was still awake.

"Idiot. Please. Just tell me tomorrow." The other answered.

"Okay…" Mikan complied obediently, although she couldn't help but imagine how her next night that she'd spend with Natsume would turn out.

Sitting up, the girl looked over to her left and checked to see if Hotaru was indeed asleep. Peering closer she felt a hand drag her down by her hair, "Mikan, when I say tomorrow. I mean _to-mo-rrow_ " afraid of the tone that her icy friend used towards her, she nodded hastily and rushed to her side of the bed forcing herself to sleep.

 _8:34 am_ | _Saturday_

Hotaru was already up, she was curious to what Mikan wanted to tell her – it was just how Mikan was so eager to tell her last night. She wanted to know last night, but sleeping was her top priority.

Waking the brunette up by kicking her off of the bed, she called out "Hey idiot. Get up, you were supposed to tell me something, remember?" the 'idiot' crawled back onto the bed and yawned.

"Ah…. Yeah. I was." Mikan's voice was hoarse and her hair was in tangles, the violet-orbed female couldn't help but snort at her best friend's appearance. Jolting awake every time the brunette began to doze off, Hotaru sighed impatiently and once again pushed her off the bed. Finally, fully awake, the bruised Mikan stood up rubbing her sore head and muttered "So pushy, geez…", the pun was so bad Hotaru cringed and pushed Mikan yet again. "STOP IT I'M AWAKE!" She belted out.

Flicking the others forehead, she scolded her, as per usual, "Don't be so loud in the morning some people are still sleeping." Mikan couldn't help but pout as her best friend always seemed to enjoy telling her off, even when Mikan was the older one.

Groaning, she began "So, I kind of saw Natsume blush when I pinned him down after I chased him. What does that mean?" her head tilted to the side as she waited for the younger yet wiser one to respond to her.

"Well this is just a guess, but I think he likes you." Hotaru shrugged not really surprised, Mikan was sweet and pretty, it would have been more shocking if Natsume didn't like her.

"I know he likes me. I like him too, but what does blushing have to do with it?" Hotaru just had to push her off the bed again, the brunette was just too dense. The said girl didn't even acknowledge the fact that even the twins liked her, but Hotaru wasn't sure about that anymore as they didn't act as overly attached to Mikan unlike before.

Mikan had been the neighbourhood babysitter for 2 years, so it was normal for them to have grown up from their crush on her. They were only 8 back then too, Mikan and her 10 years-old, it seemed like it had been ages since Mikan had lost a child or couldn't control a child's hyper activeness. Whilst Hotaru was reminiscing the other scrambled up onto the bed and tackled the raven head.

"Hotaru! I told you to stop it!" Her cheeks were puffed out and her brows were furrowed together, whilst trying hr best to form a serious scowl. Hotaru gave a rare smile, leading Mikan to gasp and withdraw, "Why are you smiling?". Sliding off the bed and heading to the door Hotaru ignored her best friend's question and walked downstairs.

"I'm heading home auntie Yuka, see you later idiot!" she called out from the stairs.

"What? Wait, HOTAR-" the slamming of the front door muffled the brunette's scream.

 _That night…_

Natsume was laying on the couch when Mikan arrived, his legs crossed and his eyes occupied on his 3DS screen. The elder bolted to the younger and grinned, popping her head in front of the boy she greeted, "Hey! Natsume do you want to watch a film?". The boy's brow knitted together in annoyance at how she blatantly interrupted his gaming session, but not able to get mad at her as she offered the idea of watching a movie. Smirking, Natsume nodded and scurried off into his room to look for the ideal film.

Knowing that Mikan's selection of films would be crap, the 10-year-old brought out his and his father's collection of films that were better than stupid girlie rom-coms. Placing them on the counter he offered his favourite film, 'The Omen' he refused to show her the cover as he knew she would refuse if she found out the genre of the film. Unsure if she could trust him Mikan asked if it was inappropriate for them to watch.

"My dad and I have watched this films many times…" the boy stared at Mikan's expression as it turned from hesitant to relieved.

"But to make sure let's watch the films that I brought!" she tried her best to convince the other.

Just as stubborn as she was, Natsume used the tactic of reverse psychology, "You're right maybe my film isn't good enough for you… let's watch your film"

The girl, easily fooled, felt bad for Natsume and gave in "No-no! I'm sure your film is good too. Ah. I mean, I was only worried that your dad might not want you to be watching it now"

Holding himself from with laughter, the raven-haired boy bit down on his cheeks and replied with "Hn."

"I'll put it in" taking the disc, the gullible brunette slid the disc into the CD player and hauled out her bag filled with snacks, "Just don't tell your dad about this okay?" Nodding the male smiled to himself – oh how she was going to be so surprised.

 _Later on…_

"I'm home!"

Natsume had his head in a pillow and Mikan was nowhere to be seen, his dad had just arrived and switched the closed lights on.

"What happened here?" he asked lost as he couldn't find the supposed babysitter. Worried he rushed to the motionless male on the couch, "Natsume?!", pushing him to his side and gasped. Something was **so** wrong, he asked the boy where Mikan was and all he received as a reply was a point to the cupboard. Puzzled at the strange behaviour, the adult had not thought of looking at the screen of the TV that was paused on a key scene of the film.

Opening the cupboard, he heard whimpering and saw a quivering Mikan in the far most corner, eyes squeezed shut and her harms hugging her legs. In his most calm voice Hyuuga-san called the two over to him, "Natsume. Mikan." The young girl crawled out slowly not batting her eyes to either of the males, and the male on the couch jumped off and strolled to his dad.

"Now be honest with me Mikan, what did you do to make my son laugh to the point of tears?" He was curious, but seeing as she was unable to even whisper Hyuuga-san gave her a pat on the head and turned his attention to Natsume. His mouth couldn't help but form into a smile indistinguishably to his own son's, it was amazingly contagious if only his son smiled like that more often, "Now. You tell me what you did to Mikan to get her to act like this?".

Natsume broke, his cold demeaner gone; deteriorated to nothing. He burst out laughing as he pointed to the screen of the TV. Hyuuga-san stared at it and chuckled, pulling Mikan and Natsume into a tight hug, "You two are perfect together… Thanks Mikan, my son has never smiled like this since I don't know when." Mikan was no longer tense, he felt her arms slowly hug back and he smiled, he made the right choice of choosing Mikan. **She was the one**.

Hyuuga-san scolded Natsume to reassure Mikan and offered her to a lift home. Natsume suddenly took his dad by the hand before they left and muttered, "Thanks for getting me a babysitter." His dad knew what he really meant by that and ruffled his son's hair. Locking the door, Hyuuga-san and Mikan had small talk about Natsume; he was a boy with a story. Hyuuga-san's wife had left the two males behind and brought their daughter with her to America for family purposes; Natsume had been very isolated as he was a right mothers boy and a doting brother.

Mikan didn't understand as she was an only child, but knew the feeling of not being with both of her parents – she knew nothing about her own father, apart from that he was no longer around.

Once they arrived at Mikan's house she thanked Hyuuga-san and rushed inside, once the car left Mikan looked around. The lights were off. Something had happened. Panic-stricken, the young brunette jumped over the white, wicket fence that separated her house from the Imai's. Knocking on the door and buzzing the doorbell Mikan cried desperately, "HOTARU!". Tears rolled down her face – no one was answering, what was she to do? Nothing like this had ever happened. Biting her lips, Mikan sat on the floor leaning against the door of the Imai's; 'Where did everyone go?'. Shutting her eyes and taking deep breaths, Mikan calmed herself down. Maybe they all went out together – it was unlikely, but anything could've happened.

Hopping up, she ran around the house and searched every inch to find if they had left any note for her. Under the pot. A small note in her mother's handwriting ' _Don't let them get you – I'll find you x'_. Shivers ran down her spine, who were ' **them** ' Mikan suddenly felt a presence behind her. Trying to be as subtle as possible, Mikan slowly began walking away, but it only drew closer. The shadow behind her grew and seemed to loom over her petit figure, they were here…

 _"We are sorry to interrupt the cartoon-mayhem marathon, but we come with breaking news. A whole neighbourhood was burnt down to the ground in a single night, we have been told that the fire started at the very end of the street – a house which belonged to the Azumi-Sakuras… No bodies were found but the family are missing, everything was burnt to a crisp and are unrecognizable… More information later tonight."_


End file.
